One of the journalists who regularly attends Donald Trump's lectures at the White House wondered how it was possible that the buttons that could trigger a terminal nuclear war were within reach of a president who was delusional and increasingly entangled in absurd megalomania, encouraged even by his close advisors.

This is how the presidential campaign of the billionaire magnate unfolds, who, not content with his current wealth, amasses ever more riches illicitly, resorting to all sorts of tricks and the corruptness common in American politics.

So much so that at his most recent press conference, he not only failed to mention current issues, such as the possible continuation of aggression against Iran, his threats of a military attack on Cuba (based on a fabricated narrative), his recent meeting with Xi Jinping, and so on, but instead focused on and boasted about the flashy ballroom he is building in the presidential residence with funds largely derived from the taxes of the American working people and very little from private donations, including his own.

Everything was presented in a very cheerful light by Trump, while outside, hundreds of uniformed officers protested the creation of a fund to compensate the violent elements who stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, encouraged by the aforementioned to try to prevent Joe Biden from assuming the presidency.

The lawyers for two officers filed the multimillion-dollar federal lawsuit a day after Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche defended the creation of the approximately $1.776 billion reconciliation fund during a congressional hearing. Blanche, Trump's personal lawyer before joining the Justice Department, did not rule out the possibility that the rioters who assaulted police officers on January 6 could be eligible to receive payments from the fund.

The lawsuit alleges that the government's "Antipoliticization Fund" is an opaque and illegal fund that Trump will use to "finance the insurrectionists." and to the paramilitary groups that commit violence in his name.” The complaint describes the creation of the fund as “the most blatant act of presidential corruption this century” and calls for its dissolution.

“No law authorizes its creation, the agreement on which it’s based is a corrupt sham, and its design violates the Constitution and federal law,” the lawsuit states.

The fund stems from a settlement resulting from Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for leaking his tax returns. It’s designed to compensate those who believe they were mistreated by the Justice Department under previous administrations. Decisions regarding payments will be made by a five-member commission appointed by the Attorney General.

More than 100 police officers were injured during the assault on the Capitol. Nearly 1,600 people were charged with related crimes, but Trump used his pardon powers to dismiss all of those cases in a sweeping act of clemency last year.

The officers argue that the fund “encourages to those who committed violence in the president's name to continue doing so.” They already face credible threats of death and violence on a regular basis; the fund substantially increases the threat.

WHOLESALE

In the height of wholesale corruption that benefits Trump, the president has already obtained a government agreement prohibiting the aforementioned IRS from conducting audits or investigations related to the past conduct of the Republican's family and businesses.

The agreement, released by the Department of Justice and signed by the aforementioned acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, establishes that the IRS will be “forever prohibited and barred” from pursuing the Trump family's conduct. The provision is part of a broader out-of-court settlement reached between the Administration and the Republican president to resolve lawsuits filed by Trump and his children against the IRS for the leak of their tax returns.

The lawsuit arose from the disclosure in 2020 and 2021 of confidential tax records obtained by media outlets such as The New York Times and República, which published reports on the low tax payments of Trump's taxes and the finances of American billionaires. Among the tax documents leaked by República was one showing that Trump paid only $750 in federal income taxes in 2016-2017. It was also revealed that the Republican paid no federal income taxes in 11 of the 18 years reviewed, due to large losses declared in his businesses—something that was not true.

IN REVIEW

Every US president has addressed crises differently. In the midst of the escalating war of aggression in Vietnam, Lyndon B. Johnson spoke of the US as the “guardian of democracy,” with a sense of forced obligation. After 9/11, George W. Bush spoke of terrorists shaking the foundations of buildings, but who would never “shake the foundations of the US.”

And now Donald Trump demands the attention of all of America by delving into the most tedious and minute details of his latest renewal project. Approval ratings show that people don't like him, not even his supporters, but he doesn't care anymore.

All of this leads back to the crucial question: Would you give access to the nuclear codes to your paranoid, declining, and completely out-of-touch grandfather, whose brightest idea was that "the Romans liked flat roofs and the Greeks liked triangles"?

Both leaders used their rhetoric to justify very bad and unjust acts, but at least they carried them out feigning decorum. Those who listened to their speeches perceived that they took the situation seriously and tried to understand it.

With Trump, the main issue is the ballroom, financed with money of dubious origin, but which will cost the American people. At least it won't be used for another genocidal war in the Middle East.

Translated by Amilkal Labañino / CubaSí Translation Staff